"He was French," Sarkozy said, according to France 24. "Let's just bury him and be done with it."

According to the AP, on Thursday night "after days of painful debate" about what to do with the 23-year-old's body, Merah was buried in the "Muslim section of a cemetery in the Toulouse neighborhood of Cornebarrieu."

The BBC reports that Merah confessed to the killings, including gunning down a rabbi and three children.

"Merah is said to have told police he wanted to avenge Palestinian children and to attack the French army because of its foreign interventions," the BBC reports.